How do I loathe thee, let me count the ways
by greywitch135
Summary: Based on 'Ten things I hate about You', HGDM fiction with a twist, HINT HINT!
1. Sick sense of humor

A/N: Don't sue me, I don't own Harry Potter!

**Quick note:** This doesn't apply to all of my faithful viewers I love you all, but tothose who are incapbable of reading dates, (especially a certain '? ()') I started this story before the 6th Harry Potter book was released, when we were unsure of whether Balise Zabini was male or female, now we know he is male but in my story he is female, so sorry but unless you really want me to change it it's gonna stay that way.

"You want me to do WHAT?" He said in disbelief, as he tried not to choke on his pumpkin juice, after all people were watching, it wouldn't do him any good if his reputation lowered because he'd sprayed all those sitting near him with juice. He had come to expect ideas as hare-brained as this off of Pansy, stupid ideas came like second nature to her, but Blaise? She was usually shrewd and levelheaded, that is, until she was "in-love" with one of the hundreds of geeks or idiots that she unbelievably found attractive, then her brain turned to mush. This month's chosen hunk was none other than…scarhead, brilliant. Oh the shame, a Slytherin pureblood indecently lusting after a Gryffindor, it had been bad enough with Neville Longbottom last month, the stupid idiot had thought himself cursed and had locked himself in his room for a month, but Harry bloody Potter? It was humiliating.

"I can't get anywhere near him, but something could happen if I got HER out the way. Besides, he groped me yesterday." Blaise said almost swooning.

Pansy snorted, "You mean he passed you your quill, that you 'just happened' to drop on the floor directly near him"

"Our fingers touched, it was heaven, pure heaven, until that girl burst in on us." She growled, shooting a venomous look at Hermione.

Malfoy inwardly groaned, now that she was on the subject of the sainted Potter, she won't give up for hours. Quick, he thought, think of something. "He can't have groped you," he said grinning evilly,

"And why not?" Blaise said threateningly.

"Because Potter is as bent as a corkscrew. Sorry Blaise, but the sooner you face it the better." The small thin girl with long dark hair ran out of the Hall wailing as he and Pansy laughed themselves sick.

"So, let me make this clear, you want me to, date Granger to take Potter's attention off of her and on to Blaise. Are you nuts? Don't answer that! I am a Sytherin pureblood, she is a Gryffindor mudblood, how different do you get? I am handsome interesting and brainy; she is unattractive, boring and a bookworm with too many brains. I don't like her, and she prays for my death with a vengeance that scares even me." He thought back to last year, he had been in the hospital ward eleven times because of her hexes, curses and tricks. But, he thought with a smirk, she had been in there right alongside him.

"She'd pay you." Draco rethought him answer, the last year had been hard on him, and not just financially, he now lived with Snape, who had a generous pay package, but was a tight-fisted git, and what Snape gave him to live on for a month was nowhere near enough, Draco was in debt to at least three people. He hated owing people something, it just wasn't what Malfoys did, they didn't borrow lend or owe, it just wasn't done.

"Okay, but why do you care if Blaise gets it off with goldenboy or not?"

"I hate Granger even more than you do, which you might find surprising, but she just gets on my nerves big time, like you and Potter, she's smart and I'm not, and brains are the only thing I lack, after all, I have influence, money, dress sense and beauty. But I suppose we can't all be perfect like she's trying so hard and yet failing to be." Draco snorted, a half rotting cow was more attractive than Pansy, and her clothes! He grimaced, vile lime robes on top of a tee-shirt that was the colour of sick, not to mention her shoes! He shuddered.

And she continued, glaring at him, "All I want to see is her, humiliated and shamed in front of everyone, and heartbroken inside, I'll get pleasure from seeing her pain." Pansy's eyes gleamed maliciously and she shot a look filled with hatred towards Hermione. Draco was mildly disturbed by that vehemence inside her, but chose to think about other things.

"So, how much will I be paid?"

"We think five gallons per date with two gallons for anything…extra, and three gallons for any time she spends away from Potter. That enough?"

Draco thought and tried not to look desperate. Five dates and six 'surprise' meetings that take Granger away from Potter and he would have his debt cleared. Not to mention any money made from anything 'extra.' He dread to think what Pansy and Blaise classed as 'extra.'

"Not to mention she's one of the few girls over age that you haven't dated, and she has a reputation of being stubborn, a prude. Think about what a challenge it'll be, you'll be known as the boy who cracked Granger's defences, you'll be as famous as Potter!"

"I'll do it." He said as his eyes shifted over to where she was sitting, did she have any idea about what was in store for her? He watched as she laughed a something weasel had said to her. No, he thought not a clue, he almost felt sorry for her, almost, but not quite.

"Just one problem," he said, "How am I meant to convince her to go out with me? She hates my guts."

"That's your problem. You're supposed to be the best at doing this, so do it. I mean,her bedroom is next to yours, you share a study, you're Head Boy sand she's Head Girl, you meet once a week to talk about rubbish, talk about something more interesting."

"We don't actually talk, she sits there and ignores me and I try my best to annoy her. It's begun to be quite a ritual." Draco thought about the cold silences between and the way she sent him looks that could pulverise stone when he tried to annoy her. She was trying to control herself because she was Head Girl, but one day soon he'd get her to snap, and she'd never hear the end of it. He grinned evilly.

"Oh and Draco," Pansy said as she got up to leave,

"What."

"I've seen the way you look at her, don't go and do something stupid…like, falling in love with her…right? 'Cause we really wouldn't want that now, would we?"

He fought hard to keep his composure, what did the stupid cow know, "I quite frankly have no idea what you're on about."

"I think you do, I watch you Draco, more than you know," She said softly near his ear, her eyes gleaming with spite, "And I've seen the way you look at her when you think no-one's watching. Anyone would think you almost like her. Ridiculous…isn't it?"

"I think you need to go and have your head examined by the nurse, that was your most stupid idea yet, well done Pansy you've broken your stupid idea record. I repeat, I hate Granger, she hates me, I don't watch her, and I am not interested in her, she repulses me, and I disgust her."

"I hear you Draco," she said, "But me thinks the gentleman doth protest just a tiny bit too much."

He gritted his teeth and managed something that resembled a smile.

"Bye Pansy"

She smiled sweetly at him and left. Draco groaned and rubbed his temples, he could feel a headache coming. But he had more important things to worry about, like how he was going to convince Hermione that he was a human being with feelings and emotions, not just a Slytherin boy who could feel nothing, the popular stereotype for Slytherins, how wrong were the people who held those ideas, just because he didn't show his emotions, didn't mean he couldn't feel emotions…how wrong they were.


	2. Peeves and peanuts

**Author's Note: **My best bud 1madcat and my sis helped with this chapter, my best bud + sis helped me with the spell, and my sis helped with the 'peeves incident,' she has a strange sense of humor!

What was that idiot looking at? Was he mentally impaired? Ever since the start of the new school year he'd started this, staring at her, annoying her, trying to make her lose her rag. Wouldn't he love it if she did, by any chance lose her temper and blast him to Kingdom come, stupid git! Not only would she lose her status as Head Girl, but her dignity and respect as well, she'd rather eat Fang than give Draco Malfoy the satisfaction of watching her humiliated. She glared at him, but he had turned around, so she didn't get the satisfaction of seeing him squirm.

_Stupid git, denying me the please of seeing him squirm, God I hate that idiot!_

Not that he would squirm, she thought to herself, only two other people had the ability to outstare Malfoy, one was his father and the other was Snape, who was a distant relative on his father's side, both of them Malfoy's, who were all born andbred to be a pus filled blister on humanity's heel.

Hermione watched in disgust as five second year girls, six fourth year girls and even three seventh years ran up to him and started begging for his autograph. So, the Malfoy fan club has already reformed, after two long and painful months without autographs and pictures signed personally by Malfoy, how had they coped without them?

_What possessed them to hang around him begging for him attention? God, I would never degrade myself so, she thought, it wasn't as if he was really handsome, not really, not where it mattered most, inside. The only thing those girls wanted was his money, if he was penniless, they wouldn't touch him with a broomstick. If only they could see how arrogant and spineless he really was. _

Lightening flashed and Hermione was struck with a brilliant idea,

_You know sometimes, _she thought happily_, I really surprise myself_. She grinned evilly as thought of the perfect spell. After all, she hadn't hexed or cursed him for over four months now. _Must have been going soft, but I mustn't make it obvious that it was me, no-one must know._

She looked around to check no-one was watching, and slipped her current night-time reading book out of her bag. She flipped through it until she found what she wanted; she altered it slightly to suit her purposes, after all, it was a spell to find out whether your soul mate was who he really said he was, and Malfoy and her were so not soul mates.

_Bingo! Malfoy, you'll make one hell of an ugly pile of black ooze on your bedroom floor!_

She looked around again and slipped the books back, after all, think of what people would say if they realized what she was reading. Malfoy would laugh himself sick, the stupid pig.

Hours later Hermione stood in front of her mirror and practiced, she said the words quietly, and got to the last line, "Tell me all he seeks to hide."

The mirror answered her, in a low voice it spoke!

"He seeks to hide the fact…his penis is the size of a peanut!"

Hermione stifled a snort of laughter and giggled, "I never knew boys had such… complicated issues to worry about, poor Malfoy"

Suddenly a wild string of evil laughing, badly concealed came from the mirror,

"PEEVES, GET OUT OF MY BEDROOM NOW! HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN IN THERE? IF YOU DON'T GET OUT NOW I'LL HAVE THE HEADMASTER EXPELL YOU"

Peeves exited the room muttering evil curses and grinning wildly. Hermione fell back on the bed and laughed so hard she wondered whether she was going mad.

"I wonder if Peeves was telling the truth!"

Late that night when every one was supposed to be in bed, Hermione crept out and snuck into Malfoy's bedroom, she stood at his bed and watched him sleep for a few seconds,

Why can't he stay like this all the time? He'd bemuch nicer to cope with asleep than awake andmaking stupid comments.

She whispered her spell softly,

"Inner out,

Outer in,

Show me all that lies within.

Only skin deep,

Reflect what's inside,

Tell me all he seeks to hide."

Hermione watched as her spell, a soft golden light, left her cuppedhands and hit his head, she turned and walked out. But she didn't see the soft golden light as it flashed and hit her in the back.

_Night night my handsome prince, I'm sure you won't be so charming in the morning._


	3. Deeper than skin

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Harry Potter, if I did, I would live in America.

The majority of Hogwarts were woken up by a loud, unmanly shriek of "Granger!"

The small minority that were not woken up by that shriek were woken up by the one that followed, a high pitched scream. The teachers, knowing at once the people shrieking had to be Hermione and Draco trying to kill each other, made their way as fast as possible to their rooms, what they saw in Hermione's room, apart from Draco trying to kill her, horrified them.

Draco Malfoy stood in front of them physically unchanged, his cheekbones still high, his height still past six-foot, but, his skin was no longer pale, and his hair was no longer fair, instead his hair was pitch black, and his face was drenched in soft, muted shades of black and dark grey, his eyes though were the same colour, but the thing that made the teachers gasp was the pure white streak that ran down the right side of his face, it was blinding white and none of the teachers could look at it for too long.

Hermione on the other hand, had a face in soft shades of white and cream, her hair was the pure, blinding white colour of Malfoy's streak, she too had a streak going down the right side of her face, but hers was black, pitch black.

The teachers gaped at them for a few seconds then tried to stop Malfoy from killing Hermione.

"Look what she's done to me, just look, I'm ruined, I'm never going to be able to hold my head up in public again. I. WANT. TO. KILL. HER!."

"It wasn't supposed to work like this," Hermione cried, "It wasn't supposed to alter me!"

"I know," Malfoy said with a smirk as he looked at her through half closed eyes, not being able to look at her properly because of her hair, "I have a spell on me, if anyone curses me, the curse affects them too."

"But why would have such a stupid spell on you?"

"Because," Malfoy said grinning at her, "Revenge would never be so sweet."

"But..." Hermione cried,

"That isn't the worst of it..." Draco finished,

"We can hear each others thoughts!" They shouted together.

"You don't know how painful it is listening to her think, her mind is always on the go, she's doing it now, for God's sake STOP THINKING!"

"You think I want to know which girls you think are hot and the ones you think are not!"

"Headmaster, please tell me you can fix this." Professor McGonagall said looking distressed.

"Of course I can. Hermione can you give me the spell you used on Draco?" Dumbledore said with a smile.

Hermione said the spell quietly, "I picked it up from a book I was looking at for potions." She lied. "I changed it slightly because it was meant to be used on your soul mate to check that he was who he said he was, and me and Malfoy are so NOT soul mates!" She said blushing slightly.

"Now, I can tell you why you can hear Mister Malfoy's thoughts, because instead of 'show me all he seeks to hide,' you said 'TELL me all he seeks to hide.' Thankfully, I can change that in a moment. I want you and Draco to sit opposite each other and look at each other, just for a second, without speaking or fighting, that should stop the sharing of your thoughts.

After a great deal of protest they eventually complied and followed Dumbledore's instructions. Hermione looked into Draco's eyes, rather scared that she could see nothing in their silver depths, _that can't be right, everyone has something in their eyes, pain... happiness... anger... something._

**_I can hear what you're thinking, and just 'cause you can't see anything in my eyes doesn't mean there's nothing there, anyway, I thought you hated me._** Slightly disturbed at the intensity Hermione was looking at him with, Malfoy returnsed the gaze, hoping to make her squirm, she didn't, **_It's like she can see what's under my skin. She's got muggle X-ray eyes!_**

Just then in that second she saw everything, everything he tried successfully to hide from everyone, his past. She saw him as a little boy, being bullied into doing things he didn't want to do by his father, she saw him two years ago discover his father had had his mother under the imperius curse for years, and that she could do very little for herself without his father telling her what to do. Then she saw why he had changed over the summer holiday, he now longer lived with his father, his father was now in Azkaban serving his time for killing his mother, trying again and again to break free.

Malfoy, on the other hand was seeing all the things Hermione tried to hide, fear that she didn't even know she had, her fear for Harry and her worries on how he was coping without Sirius, her fear of being left out by Ron and Harry, her fears about not being good enough, not being clever enough. He saw her memories of her last school and how she had been bullied for being smart.

Then the images flashing through their eyes stopped and they could no longer hear the other's thoughts.

**_What has she seen? _**When he saw her eyes he knew exactly what she had seen, his past. He refused to react to that discovery,

"I had a really fun past." He said sarcastically, enjoying looking at the confusion in her eyes, "When will I be back to normal?" He asked Dumbledore.

"Just after I've said the counter-curse. 'Aspectus commutatus'"

At once their appearances changed back to normal, the teachers left, all rather shocked,except for Snape and Dumbledore.

"Headmaster I really must protest, Granger needs at least three weeks of detention with me, she could have severely mentally scarred Mister Malfoy forever, he might not have been able to turn back, she has to be punished!"

"I think Miss Granger has been punished enough by her own spell, go now, both of you."

They left without talking, and went into their own rooms to think about what they had just learnt about the other.


	4. The taming of the Shrew

A/N: Don't sue me, I don't own Harry Potter, but I have brought Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, has anyone else? By the way, I love dream catchers, does anybody else?

For a week they avoided each other, when one of them was in a room that the other had just walked into, they left it, they didn't talk to each other, not even to wind the other one up. Harry and Ron, after finding out that Draco hadn't hurt Hermione, before or after she had placed the spell on him, had given Hermione a pat on the back and congratulated her, hmm, she wasn't sure how she felt about that. But it was Saturday night, Hermione had no homework to do, and was lying on her bed, trying not to think of one certain small blond boy being bullied by his father. She tried to think of all the horrid names he had called her and all the things he had done to them, but – How can I blame him for all these things when this is all he has ever known? He's been brought up to be a permanent pain in the backside. She thought about her own family, and felt a stab of home-sickness, she missed them so much sometimes.

She was getting one major headache from all this thinking, so she decided to relax, I'm going to take a very long time to wash my hair, and then I'm going to put one of my CD's in, and turn the volume up to the max.

Draco lay on his bed thinking, Dumbledorre may have vanished the thought sharing, but he could still tell what she was thinking, and right now she was as confused as he was, **so, Little Miss Perfect has her own troubles and fears as well, this doesn't change a thing** he vowed.

He fell asleep, but half an hour later he was woken up, **what the hell?** Hermione, and this annoying whirring noise coming from her room had waked him up, **What in Merlin's name is she doing? **He had just managed to unsuccessfully try to ignore the noise when a few seconds later music, played full blast, was thudding through his ears. **Can she not hear the music? Or is she just playing it to annoy me? **

He banged on the wall and screamed,

"Will you shut the hell up!"

He might as well have politely whispered, "Please darling turn your music done," for all the good it did him.

He got out his bed, and walked out of his rooms and stood in front of her's, **What is she doing in there?** Was that bedsprings squeaking he could hear?

He opened the door, her room was similar in layout to his, but rather than the cold, bleak room that he inhabited her's was a soft, warm yellow, she had a number of strange looking things in there, grey boxes and totally bizarre looking things that looked like circular spiders webs, then he turned around and looked at the bed, his mouth literally dropped to the floor.

Hermione stood on the bed dressed in baggy flannel pyjamas with soaking wet hair, she was holding some strange machine thing that was making 50 of the noise. Not only that, but she was jumping up and down on her bed in a crazy way to the music that she had on to the max, some sad girl screeching on about this sad skater boy who fancied this chick with a pretty face, **how sad, why was THE BOY chasing after this girl? **

She stopped as soon as she saw him, but the bed had other ideas and did one last, very loud BOING. She saw his face and burst out laughing. **How dare she laugh at me, why, I'm not the one that's jumping up and down on her bed listening to music about one loser skater boy, I'm not the one creating a racket.**

But he couldn't keep a poker face for too long; soon he burst out laughing as well,

"You looked like you'd just seen Crabbe and Goyle dance naked in front of you!" She said, bringing on another bout of hysterical laughing. Once she'd calmed down she asked him, "What do you want Malfoy?"

"To find out what the racket I could hear so loudly in my room is, now that I've discovered what's making the noise, I now have to discover what exactly it is."

"It's a hairdryer, and yes, it's a muggle object, so if you don't want to be contaminated I suggest you move a little further away. I asked the Headmaster if I could bring some of my things from home with me, so he let me, come a little closer and I'll show you what it does, that is, if you're not too scared of it."

"Me scared, how much damage could a muggle thing do?"

"You'll be surprised how much damage muggle things can to in the wrong hands." She said sending him an evil and threatening look that he ignored, after all, how much damage can a hairdryer do?

He came a little closer to her and sent a hot blast of air right on top of his head, which not only messed up his carefully groomed hair, but he was totally unprepared for it and went around her room yelping.

"That thing's damaged my head, it's burnt me and oh my God, it's completely messed up my hair."

She watched in amusement as he stood moaning in front of her mirror for five minutes, "Well, I did tell you that in the wrong hands muggle things can be very dangerous and life-threatening."

"Why don't you just use a drying spell?"

"Because it makes my hair go mad, I end up looking like medusa."

He walked around her room, "What are these things?" He said pointing to her television set and CD player,

"Well that one plays my music that's on these discs," she said holding up her Anastasia CD, "And that one shows moving pictures and films on the screen." She said pointing to her TV.

"What do these things do?" He said gesturing to the circular spider's web things, "What are they meant to do, kill and trap spiders?"

She giggled, since when have I giggled, what's happening with me? "No, they are a Native American tradition, they're meant to trap bad dreams in the web, and let good dreams pass through the feathers, hopefully I won't be getting bad dreams for a long while." She said waving vaguely to twenty dream catchers arranged round her bed.

H e went quiet, sat on her bed, and picked up her book on the bedside table,

"What are you reading? 'The taming of the Shrew?'" He raised his eyebrows and flicked through the bed.

"Put it down and get off my bed!"

He ignored her and continued to flick through it,

"'How do I love thee, let me count the ways?'" He said disbelievingly,

"Yeah, only it'd be 'how do I loathe thee let me count the ways' if it was about us." She said with a grin, "Now. GET. OFF. MY. BED. Immediately."

He ignored her again and her eyes burned with an amber fire, she climbed on next to him and with a hard shove, pushed him off her bed. He landed on the floor with a giant bang.

"You will seriously pay for that. You have harmed my sacred body."

She snorted and he chucked a pillow at her.

"How dare you, this is my room."

"How dare you snort at me, besides, how unladylike."

They fought, shrieking their heads off, pushing and pulling each other off the bed for half an hour, chucking pillows, Hermione's soft toys and various other things at each other, Draco did consider throwing her books at her, but the look on her face when he picked up made him realised that if he had chucked them he would not have made it out her room alive, he threw a chair at her instead.

She had just succeeded in getting him off the bed for the thirteenth time, and was standing on the bed above him laughing at the scowl on his face when there was a knock at the door. She reacted with lightening speed, and sat on him, covering his mouth with her hands.

"Miss Granger, are you alright?"

"Professor MacGonagall? Erm… did you want something?"

"No, I was walking by your room, when I heard some… strange… shrieking coming from it, I thought something was amiss."

"No… I'm fine… is there anything you wanted?"

"No, I'm fine Miss Granger." She waited until she could no longer hear the professor's footsteps as she walked along the corridor and leapt off him, she waited until he had gotten up of the floor, grabbed his ear and pulled him out of her room.

"Now, stay out!" But she ruined the stern effect by grinning at him; she then slammed the door on him and began to put her room back into the order it had been in half an hour before he'd walked into it. _Shame I can't do the same thing to my life._

Thanks to everyone who has reviewed so far, I love you all, so thanks to: 1madcat (my best bud) JohnCenasGirl4Eva, Moonglitter2, Riality, snowmouse (), marauderbabe289, Nosilla, Love That Elf, preciousonee, 4 Privet Drive, maddie, Jaina Solo Potter.

P.s. What did you think of Harry Potter 6?


	5. A Cauldron of Hot Strong Love

A/N: Don't sue me, I don't own Harry Potter, by the way, will people stop reviewing me and telling me that Blaise is a boy, I KNOW!

"Erm… Hermione, are you alright?"

"Hmmn."

"Hermione, is something wrong?"

"No… why?"

"'Cause I've just stolen your bagel with cream cheese, eaten right in front of your nose, and you haven't said a word. What's up?"

"Oh… nothings wrong, I'm fine."

Ron turned a bemused face to Harry, who promptly turned round to Ginny, begging her for help. She meaningfully moved her eyes to the door, hinting at him and Ron to go, Harry tried to subtly hint to Ron that they had to go, but all he earned for his efforts was a "What's wrong with your eyes Harry? OUCH! Why did you just kick me?"

Eventually Harry got it through to Ron that their presence was no longer required and he dragged Ron out of the Hall.

"So Hermione, what's up? Usually you'd be screaming at Ron for eating your bagel, but today you've just ignored him, are you ill?"

"No, but… if I tell you this, swear to me that you won't tell a soul, not even Harry, and especially not Ron."

"Okay."

So Hermione told Ginny everything, all that she'd seen when she'd looked into Malfoy's eyes, and how she felt about it,

"So now I'm confused, and not only that but… I'm worried about him, he's not sleeping, and he's got bags the size of houses under his eyes, I really don't know how I feel about anything any more, what do you think I should do? To top that, I don't have any ideas on what he saw in my eyes."

"Well, what I'd do is talk to him, you're not gonna get anywhere without talking to him, by the way, how's your secret mission going, Harry said it made a big difference, but she's still trying to get of with him, doesn't she understand the words bog off?"

"Probably not, I bet she's never been told them before, it must be a big shock to her system. I'll try talking to him, I'll do it tonight when we have this meeting thing to discuss how the week's been, and we have to arrange things for the Halloween Ball."

"Hermione, isn't that a little late for you to start arranging things by your standard? After all, Halloween's in less than three weeks time, usually you give things at least a month."

"WHAT!"

Hermione ran out the Hall in shock, and immediately started making plans for the Ball.

* * *

Meanwhile, Draco was involved in an interesting conversation with Pansy and Blaise. 

"Draco, we think we should be paying you just yet, after all, you were so obviously ignoring each other last week."

"Come on, she cursed me, got cursed back and you expect us to fall into each others arms and write love poetry to each other, if that happened she probably slap me, scream and permanently deafen me and then try to kill me." **_This had to be Pansy's idea, some more evil manipulating plans from that stupid cow._**

"No falling into each others arms, no money, take her to the Ball, she'll probably never be asked by anyone except Weasel or Potter." Her and Blaise laughed cruelly.

"Okay, you want me to ask a girl that hates me, that I cursed a grand total of 29 times last year, that cursed me 30 times, to go to the Ball with me, I never be able to live down the humiliation and shame of her rejecting me."

"You take her to the Ball and I'll pay for everything you'll need, costume, flowers and chocolates, whatever, even though I'd hate to see them wasted on a mudblood like her, just stop her from going with Harry."

"Blaise, why don't you find yourself some one a little more desirable? Why waste your time on a weird geek like him when there are so many better people here, in your own house that you can go out with?"

"You mean like the hot and sexy Crabbe and Goyle? The nightmare to ruin every girl's daydream of the perfect man."

"Whatever, you'd probably make a perfect couple." He said as he walked away.

* * *

That night they were frantically going over the plans for the ball, they had finished the plans for the decoration and food, they were discussing the music plans. 

"You know, I really think that we should see if Celestina Warbeck's free, don't you just love her voice?"

He looked at her to see if she was joking, and got very worried when he decided that she wasn't.Celestina Warbeck is the worst singer I have ever had the misfortune to listen to, but he doesn't know that!

"You are joking, aren't you?"

"Malfoy, have you ever known me to do such a thing as joke? Me, Hermione Granger, joke? Never!"

She got up of her seat and danced around his chair, he missed the evil gleam in her eye as she sang the first lines from 'A Cauldron of Hot Strong Love.'

"Oh come and stir my cauldron,

And if you do it right

I'll boil you up some hot, strong love

To keep you warm tonight."

She had a good voice he realised, but that was beside the point, she wanted to hire that awful woman to sing at the Halloween Ball? No way, no how, impossible, people would be leaving the Ball with their ears bleeding, it would be a total flop. He winced as she continued singing.

"What Draco, don't you like my singing? I'll take that as an insult to my beautiful voice."

Draco inwardly groaned and put his head in his hands, "It's not your voice that's the problem, it's her songs."

For the second time in two days she burst out laughing, at him. **_That is the second time she's laughed at me, there will definitely not be a third time._**

"You thought I was serious? Only women over forty like that singer, I personally think that she sounds like a load of cats with rabies screeching their heads off!"

She sat back down and continued laughing, **_interesting, I've laughed more in two days with her than I've done in a year without her._**

* * *

That night Draco was awake again, but this time it wasn't because he couldn't sleep, it was because he was following Hermione. He had noticed that every now and then at night her doors would open and close late at night, and then a few hours later they would open and close again, he hadn't worried about it before, but now he wanted to know where she was sneaking off to. **_After all, if she's sneaking out to meet some one, as her paid boyfriend I should find out who it is. Not that I want to kow if I'm stepping on some one's feet, but I want to know who to boot out of her life. God, I hope it's not Potter, or even worse, the Weasel._ **

HA HA HA (EVIL LAUGH) I told you, I'm not called greywitch for nothing, just thought I'd leave with a little cliffhanger.

GUESS TIME: Now, answer these questions for me in your reviews, where is Hermione going to? What is she going with? And who is she going to meet? By the way will you please R&R my story, 'Curse of the Danaides' and tell me whether I should continue it or not.

I HAVE 21 REVIEWS! YEAH YEAH

Thanks to everyone who has reviewed so far, I love you all, so thanks to: 1madcat (my best bud) JohnCenasGirl4Eva, Moonglitter2, Riality, snowmouse (), marauderbabe289, Nosilla, Love That Elf, preciousonee, 4 Privet Drive, maddie, Jaina Solo Potter, Darkest Dawn, Flame ().


	6. Midnight walks

A/N: Don't sue me; I don't own Harry Potter. SORRY ABOUT THE LATENESS OF THIS UPDATE, I WOULD HAVE DONE IT SOONER, BUT THE COMPUTER BROKE. To make up I've made this chapter a little longer. ENJOY!

He was the night; all it embodied, and all it's power and majesty, cloaked in the shadows that her light gave off, consumed by a jealousy that he never knew he could feel.

His brightness forgotten as he hid in the darkness. He followed her, her cloak rippling out behind her as she walked, her footsteps a mere whisper on the ground, she travelled along corridors and up stairs, **where is she going?**

His eyes didn't need the light that her wand exuded; they were accustomed to the dark from the countless nights when he was unable to sleep and so adjusted quickly.

She climbed the stairs that led up to the Astronomy Tower, Peace and quiet, that's all I want, and if I have to break a few minor rules to get it, I'll do just that!

He watched with fascination from the open door as she sat backwards on a cushioned chair, looking out of the glass window that served as three of the walls. She rested her head on the back of the chair and dropped her bag to the floor. She sat like that for a few minutes, just watching out of the window, her big eyes glassy and seeing things that weren't there, or perhaps, things that he could not see. **I had her pegged as a bookworm and a know-it-all, but not as a dreamer… interesting.**

Hermione reached inside the bag and withdrew her book, she rested it against the chair back and started to read it, but something… something kept catching her eye, something in the shadow and darkness near the door, her eyes narrowed and her gaze pierced the darkness, then she realised that she was aware of strange feelings that weren't her own, something out there has some complicated issues to sort out, she thought with a grin, and then cursed herself for not picking up on them before, she sent another venomous look over in the corner. Maybe I'll wind him up a little first, I'll have my revenge on the devious little rat, how dare he sneak up on me like that?

Was it just him, or did she know he was there? Her eyes seemed to follow his every movement, and she seemed to be sending some really poisonous looks his way. He looked down to avoid her gaze, but when he dared to look up she had vanished. He looked around the room, searching for her and stepped hesitantly out of the shadows. He was turning around, trying to find out where she had gone when something pushed him over from behind,

"Did you not know that I passed first in my Apparation class, and also that it's not very smart to sneak up on a witch, you really don't know what she might do, and skulking around in dark corners is really stupid too."

From his rather ridiculous place on the floor he scowled and turned around, looking up at her amused face.

"Malfoy's don't skulk, and they don't happen to be stupid either."

"Doesn't matter, by the way, the score for this year is Malfoy 0, Granger 3, really Draco, are you losing your touch?"

"What did you just call me?"

"Malfoy, now what are you doing here?"

"You called me Draco."

"I did not."

"Did too."

"Did not."

"Did too."

"Did not."

"Did not."

"Did too." She glared at him, and he smiled angelically at her.

"That was stupid and incredibly childish."

"I was right in the first place, you did call me Draco, but you shouldn't be wandering around here at night anyway, you don't know what could happen to you."

"Like what? Snape could kidnap me and subject me to the as yet unknown horrors of Potions, or I could catch Professor McGonagall and Dumbledorre in a midnight rendezvous and then be transfigured into a book by my horror. Sure Malfoy, a lot of really dangerous things could happen to me."

"Any way, why did you come her to read books? You can do that in the Common Room. I mean I'd understand it if you were here to meet some-one."

"So that's why…"

"Why what?"

"Nothing." That's why I could sense jealousy was radiating off of you in great big angry green dollops, what's wrong with you, you hate me… don't you? You always hated me… haven't you? Why are you jealous of me meeting some one? Why am I so pleased that you're jealous? Have you lost your mind? Or worse… have I?

But a tiny voice inside said no… but just maybe your heart. She pushed that thought to the back of her head and refused to even think about what it could mean. First she had to stop him from going near her bag, and the books inside it.

She leapt over to the bag in three long strides and quickly crammed the books in it, then held it tightly closed so that there was no chance what so ever of him seeing what was in there, but he saw the hurried movement and grinned he wanted to know what exactly was in that bag that she so obviously didn't want him to see, he walked up behind her and snatched it off of her.

After five minutes of brutal fighting where he got bit once, scratched twice and punched three times he eventually got the bag, she didn't even try to get it off him, she knew there was no point.

He looked inside in disbelief, expecting schoolbooks or something immensely boring from the library, or even something taken without permission from the restricted section, he found… novels?

She was trying to hide the fact she read muggle novels? **No, there has to be more than that.**

He turned one of the books over and read the back cover, trying to find out why she didn't want him to see it, raised an eyebrow, laughed and smirked. She read trashy, muggle romance novels! **No wonder she didn't want me to see it, PERFECT!** Not only that, but there were other magical books in her bag, some that she really wouldn't want other people to see.

Her cheeks went red, and his smile widened.

This is AWFUL and so embarrassing, it cannot get any worse, and how did I ever become so addicted to them anyway? Why did I ever let the librarian talk me into reading them?

"So what are you going to do about it?" She said gesturing to the bag.

"Well, I could magnify my voice and read these to everyone at breakfast," her face paled and he grinned grew even wider, "… or you can do something for me."

"I refuse to do your homework for you, you're smart enough to do it for yourself."

"Wow, Granger, did you just call me smart, I'm flattered, I really am."

"Deflate your ego so that you can actually fit your head through the door, or even better, let me do it for you, I promise I'll be gentle," he smirked, "Then you could tell me what you want me to do for you."

"I need a favour."

She snorted. "From me?"

"Yeah, I know, it's degrading," she threw her bag at him.

"Ouch, that hurt." He rubbed his head.

"Baby, you know you are such a wimp."

"I am not a wimp."

"Are too,"

"Am not."

"Are too."

"Am not."

"Are not."

"Am too… that was childish and stupid." She grinned at him and he scowled.

"Learnt it from the best, now, what do you want me to do?"

"Interesting question, it could involve you doing so many things."

She threw an 'I-am-really-disgusted-with-you' look at him.

"Just tell me."

"I want you to go to the Halloween Ball with me."

He had expected her to tell him he was mad, or for her to throw something at him, but she didn't, she looked at him in disbelief.

"Sorry, I just thought I heard you say that you wanted me to go to the ball with you."

"I do. I'm getting a really bad reputation of only going out with stupid girls." He elaborated with a stroke of what he considered genius, and what she thought was stupidity, "And a lot of the really smart girls are really hot chicks, so I'm missing out on a lot 'cause of this reputation thing, so, since you're the smartest girl in our year I thought I could go with you, and that'd get the point through that I date brainy girls as well."

He looked at her and realised that he'd made a big mistake, her eyes burned with a strange black fire and anger radiated off her in waves, he didn't need to know her feelings to find out how she felt, she was so obviously pissed off.

"Let me get this completely straight, you want me to go to the Ball with you so you a better chance of sleeping with a wider variety of pretty girls." Okay, he had to admit he sounded like a scumbag, "You haven't even thought about the fact I might want to go with someone of my own choice, someone I might enjoy going with. Congratulations Malfoy, you've just exceeded yourself in my eyes, you've gone from a heartless piece of scum to a completely heartless arsehole whose life revolves around his trousers, bravo!"

"I can take the fact that you think I'm a piece of scum, I was expecting that, but I don't let my trousers don't rule my life, and anyway, it's an honour that I asked you, I know many girls that would literally die for that honour."

"Well, I am definitely not one of them, I don't want to go with you, I want to go with someone of my choice and have a hope of having a good time."

"Like scarhead or weasel? Anyway you don't have a choice, not unless you want me to make good my promise of magnifying my voice."

"Maybe I do want to go with Harry or Ron, at least they'd appreciate me, and I'd have a good time with them, something I severely doubt I'd have with you."

Okay, now he was mad, she had no right to insult him like that, **She'd have a better time with them would she, whatever, God, why did she have to be so difficult, she should be flattered that he'd even thought of her going with him.**

"The only reason you'd want to go with either of those two idiots is that you're too scared that they're going to run off and leave you on your own. You know Granger, I would never have thought that you of all people would worry about something as pathetic as that."

…**I really don't think I should've have said that…**

She marched up to him, her anger, if possible, tripled; she then punched him with all her might in the face. For a moment he was too shocked to do anything.

"How dare you use that against me, I would never do something as low and rotten as that, I would never have reminded you of everything that you suffered through, even in an argument and if you were any kind of human being you wouldn't have reminded me of things I don't need to be reminded of. But you're not a human being, are you Malfoy? You are just a cold, heartless excuse for some one who cares about nothing and who nobody cares about. Alright Malfoy, fine, you've got your way, after all, like you said, I have no choice in the matter, I will go to the Ball with you, but that's it, I won't dance with you, sit with you, or go anywhere near you once we've arrived."

With that she gathered up all her things and swept out of the room, within a few seconds she had disappeared into the darkness and shadows, heading back to her room fuming with anger while he sat down furious with her, **now, what would really annoy her the most? Let me see…**

**Thanks to everyone who has reviewed so far, I love you all, so thanks to:** 1madcat (my best bud), JohnCenasGirl4Eva, Moonglitter2, Riality, snowmouse (), marauderbabe289, Nosilla, Love That Elf, preciousonee, 4 Privet Drive, maddie, Jaina Solo Potter, Darkest Dawn, Flame ().


	7. Hatred's Kiss

A/N: Don't sue me; I don't own Harry Potter. Thanks for all your reviews, I love you all and I love receiving your reviews.

She woke up mad, cross and really annoyed, not only was she mad at herself for getting it the situation she found herself in, but also, if you hadn't already noticed, she was seriously mad at him. Not only that, she had been woken up by people banging at her door, girls screeching, and her name being called repeatedly. She looked at her clock and groaned, it was Sunday, 5.30 in the morning, by even Hermione's standards it was still too early to get up, so why on Earth were there girls, standing outside her bedroom, screaming her name, and just screaming in general?

She got out of the bed, and opened the door with the fiercest face she could muster while still half asleep and growled at them. Then cursed herself loudly for tripping over her pyjamas and so ruining the effect.

"What do you want?"

She was greeted by a high pitched girly shout of

"Hermione how could you?"

"How could I what?"

"How could you go to the ball with Draco and not tell us."

Considering Hermione didn't know who half the girls standing outside her door were, she ignored that last comment.

"We've just spoken with him, totally begging him to go with one of us, we do, after all know him so well, he's our hero. But then he says that you just begged him to go with you and he felt awful about saying no so he's going with you." The last bit of that sentence was screeched at her.

"He said what?"

"He said that he just felt so bad about saying no to you, so he's going to go to the ball with you, honestly Hermione, you dark horse, I really don't believe that you are going to the ball with him. It was you who said that he resembled a pile of bleached horse droppings, wasn't it?"

Hermione grabbed her wand and put a silencing spell on them all with a great feeling of almost satisfaction and evil vengeance, she then slammed the door onto their rather shocked/disappointed/annoyed faces.

Why that stupid, arrogant, pig-headed, idiot. He has messed seriously with the wrong girl, how dare he? I beg HIM to go to that stupid ball with me! His nightmare and my complete hell, why I'd MUCH rather die first. He makes me so mad. But then again, it's not me that's going to be sorry later on…

She smiled a little evilly in a way that was very reminiscent of Draco, grabbed her quill and started composing something… surprising, something totally…evil, or maybe just a little evil.

She muttered a few choice words under her breath, most of them describing how vile, evil or completely stupid he was.

Making a decision to look her utmost best that morning, to get through the message that she really didn't care one fig about him, or his arrogance she spent an hour in the shower washing her hair. After that she dressed in really nice clothes, not to flashy, but nice stuff, the things she wouldn't usually wear on an ordinary day. Then she left her hair lying down her back and knew later on that it would fly into her eyes and tangle up, but she had to look good know, never mind about later. She did consider putting on make-up, but changed her mind; she was not under any circumstances going to put on make-up for him, whether it was to wind him up or not.

She was awakened from her daydream of shrinking him and crushing him to death with one of her sharp pointy heels when she was startled by a large, black, sinister, rather forbidding bird tapping on her window.

Seeing the white envelope in its beak she opened the window, only to have the terrifying thing clamp its claws down on her arm and rub its head onto her chin.

Giving a surprised gasp she looked at him. His large green eyes peeped back at her with a troublingly bright green human gaze. She stroked his soft, pitch black, feathers and he made a few appreciating noises.

"So… you're just a big softy at heart are you?" She kept stroking him for a few minutes until he released his painful grasp on her arm and stood in front of her, waiting to have the envelope taken out of his month.

She took the offered letter off of him and opened it.

Inside was only a scrap of pure white paper, with two words written on it,

Game on.

She didn't need to ask the bird who his owner was. Rather than taking her anger out on the bird, w3hich was a pathetic, childish thing some-one else, who she wasn't going to mention might have done, she stroked him some more, the poor thing can't help who his owner is, I bet he's dying for attention or affection the poor creature.

She scribbled a rude reply telling him exactly what she thought of him, his so-called 'games' and then told him to beware.

Life got a whole lot better as she sat in between Ron and Harry in the Great Hall that very afternoon. They were throwing evil glances at Malfoy and anyone who even dreamed of coming her way. They hadn't been very pleased about her going to the Ball with Malfoy, but after reassuring them thirty times that she did not fancy him and was never going to, she reminded Harry of Blaise and her quite obvious love for him.

She watched as Malfoy received all of his fan mail, smirking at her as he opened them. Is she trying to show me what I'm missing? 'Cause I'm not buying it. Then she played her trump card, smiling sweetly at him as she did so.

A pure white owl soared out of the rafters in the Hall and came flying straight for Malfoy. In its beak was a large, red, steaming envelope, a howler.

She watched with satisfaction as he opened the thing with a great deal of caution, and the people around him suddenly became very interested in his mail.

She then sat back and enjoyed the show that she had, by herself, purposefully created for everyone else's enjoyment.

"An ode to Malfoy, the pus filled, extremely painful, blister on humanity's heel.

How do I loathe thee? Let me count the ways,

I hate the way you do your hair,

I hate the way you look and stare,

I hate your pride, your arrogance,

I hate the way you strut and prance,

You're smooth, you're mean, I hate all these,

I hate your eyes, emotionless,

I hate you, you soulless pest,

You scorn, you lie, you cheat, you steal, I hate all these,

But most of all I hate the way you make me feel,

I hate your coldness so heed well all of this, feel the sting of hatred's kiss."

Most of the poem was screamed at him, getting gradually louder and louder as it neared the end, partly because the rest of the room went quiet, but mostly because of the spell that she had put on her pride and joy, her creation. The last line was spoken softly, the envelope leaning slightly towards him. She knew instinctively as she had made it, that by that point everyone else would go even quieter and lean in towards him as well. Dying to know which girl had so scorned his attentions and sent his this insulting howler.

He looked up, his eyes seeking hers. She could feel the anger and hate rolling off of him in giant waves, serves him right, it's his turn to have a sleepless night, filled with nastiness.

She winked at him and felt his surprise, and then she did something even worse. Something … evil. She blew him a kiss. In the din following his howler everyone was talking about it, who it had been sent form, why it had been sent. So they never noticed the light in a soft kiss shape that floated towards Malfoy. None of them noticed, either, the shocked, surprised expression on Pansy's face when he told her that her new dress would look much better on some-one half her size. Not that he had actually meant to say that in the first place of course, but still… after all he had done was simply tell the truth.

**Thanks to everyone who has reviewed so far, I love you all, so thanks to:** 1madcat (my best bud), JohnCenasGirl4Eva, Moonglitter2, Riality, snowmouse (), marauderbabe289, Nosilla, Love That Elf, preciousonee, 4 Privet Drive, maddie, Jaina Solo Potter, Darkest Dawn, Flame (), Arwen12323, Hapi Djus, sienna (), sammy (). **I love being able to thank all these people.**


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